THERE WILL BE NO NEW ROADS IN NIGERIA TILL THE EXISTING ONES ARE COMPLETED - FASHOLA

THE Minister of Works, Power and Housing,
Babatunde Fashola, has stated that his ministry
will not award any new contract for the
construction or rehabilitation of federal roads
until existing ones are completed.
Mr. Fashola said past administrations in Nigeria
awarded contracts for 206 roads at about N2
trillion naira, which were mostly unpaid for.
He was responding to questions from State
House correspondents on Wednesday at the end
of the meeting of the Federal Executive Council.
He spoke on the terrible state of some roads
within the Federal Capital and the reason his
ministry appears to be more interested in the
Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.
Mr. Fashola said the roads went bad at a time
when there were resources but the governments
of the time refused to fix them.
“What we have done was first to say that we
would not award any new road contract,” he
said.
“We would deal with the over 206 roads that
have been awarded but not funded for over three
years.”
Mr. Fashola also said because of the limited
resources available to his ministry, road projects
have to be prioritized.
He said the Lagos-Ibadan expressway is a very
important road for the whole country and carries
the heaviest traffic.
“Now the budget that we have for the three
ministries that I superintend is in the region of
N400 plus billion and over 200 billion is
dedicated to roads across the country.
“So that is the deficit that we have to deal with
and in making those choices we then have to
deal not with roads that necessarily border us
but roads that carry the heaviest traffic,” he
said.
He said attention is being given to roads that
have economic significance for the country such
as routes for the evacuation of fuel and food
produce going to the different parts of the
country.
The minister also disclosed that the council
approved the purchase of three transformers of
150 MVA to be installed in sub-stations of Shiroro
in Niger, Osogbo in Osun and Kumbotso in Kano
as requested by the Transmission Company of
Nigeria, TCN.
Mr. Fashola, who did not mention the cost of the
transformers, said the purpose of the purchase
which overrides the cost implication is to
“continue to reinforce, expand and maintain the
existing transmission capacity so that as the
progress of our incremental power initiative
expands and achieves its purpose, transmission
company is able to competently deliver the
power.”





Sourced and edited by DANIEL IKECHUKWU EKWUNIFE (08066298797)